Volunteer Envy
 | Amazon, 2006, Digital |
|---|
When I was thirty-four, I went back to the shelter where I'd once lived as a fifteen-year-old runaway. Now that I was a respectable thirtysomething yuppie, I wanted to revisit the part of my past that had always caused me the most pain; I also wanted to help young people in crisis, as I once was. So every week for the past two years, I shlep my jewelry-making supplies uptown to the shelter for some art therapy with the girls of the Older Females Unit. And every week, it's as theraputic for me as it is for the girls. “Volunteer Envy” is about one such shift at the shelter, when my workshop is interrupted by…gasp…other volunteers! It's a blow to my ego, until I am abruptly reminded of what really matters here at the shelter—not my feelings, but the health and safety of these girls. Once again, I walk away from my shift with a greater understanding of what I'm doing here; once again—twenty years later, and on the other side now—the shelter helps me.
Title: Volunteer Envy
Sales Rank: 1473988 in Books
Author: Janice Erlbaum
Publisher: Amazon, 2006-03-13, Digital
- One line pulls from the next...I was yanked through this story...
- I apprecite stories like this because they're emblematic of the sort of society we'd *like* to have, only it's not the type of society which really *exists.* Anyone, like this particular author, who is willing to dig deep into the mucky abyss of inner-city society to find a positive silver lining of hope in its (too) oftentimes stinky morass deserves the authorial… More reviews
- A chance to "discover" a new author
- Janice Erlbaum is also the author of the new book "Girlbomb: A Halfway Homeless Memoir," and I feel like me and my friends are "discovering" a new author, just as she's breaking. If you like this sample, her book is 200 times better... her writing style is alive with crackling energy. More reviews
